First look or traditional?

We will be traditional and see each other walking down the aisle

My friend did it and they loved it. he cried when he saw her and it was such an intimate moment between the two of them!

We did a first look and it was nice! I loved that all of the formal pictures were done and over with early on in the day.

We decided to do the first look. We are getting married in Feb and not till later in the day. I want to take advantage of the natural light plus I want the cocktail hour to spend with family and friends. Even if it is taking more pictures with them. I want to make sure we have the time for pictures we want done.

My fiance wants the first time he sees me to be when I walk down the aisle, but I've always wanted to do a first look. I think we're going to end up doing a first touch kind of photo op before the ceremony, and have a longer cocktail hour to make sure there's time for photos.

It'll also help if you don't have to travel for photos and you can take them on the property of your venue

We're going traditional. We also pushed our ceremony up to 3pm (dinner is at 6pm) in order to give ourselves lots of time for pictures. It's a private ceremony, so only a few guests will have to fill all the time in between and we will have outdoor games at our reception space to keep them busy.

Depending on your day of timeline and what time your ceremony is you could do what we are doing. We are having the groom/groomsmen and bride/bridesmaid photos taken before the ceremony seperately and then after during the cocktail hour it's just us and family and us together so it will save some time.

I totally understand why people choose to do a first look but we both really look forward to the whole experience of the traditional reveal. Someone else mentioned pretty much exactly what I'll probably end up doing - get photos with me and my family/bridal party and him and his family/groomsmen separate so we don't see each other but we can save a bit of time during cocktail hour. Id love to do a shoot of us and the bridal party beforehand with him blindfolded or something. Or back to back or something cute and pinteresty where we are together but not actually looking at each other.

I can't wait to see him for the first time all done up in my dress walking down the aisle. We're both going to be a wreck.

I'm pro first look. This way if you only have 1 photographer you get both of your reactions and then can get all of the pictures out of the way! And depending on what time your ceremony is that means your pictures will be before it gets super hot outside seeing as how your wedding is set for August!

PLUS you can skip cocktail hour all together and save money!

It really depends on the timeline of your day, and what parts of your wedding you want to keep traditional.
For us, our ceremony is at 5, and cocktail hour right after, with dinner being served at 7. So doing a first look was best because then all our wedding party pictures are done before hand, we can do some couple shots of us during cocktail hour and then family photos.

We were limited on this choice because our venue only allows at 4:30 ceremony start, so we could go traditional and completely miss our cocktail hour for photos but we want to enjoy every second of the food and drink so we just landed easily on a first look! However, neither of us felt like we are giving up anything by missing the aisle moment. We are pretty excited about a special first look moment between the both of us, and we are also going to exchange letters to each other since we are pretty shy to do special vows in front of everyone.

Lots of good advice below about making the photo session easier and shorter though!

Timing of the day seems restricted for what you want to do, first look will help to cut down the time first hand. Traditional may take more time upon photographer request allowing you to allocate the other times to spread out in other areas.

Base the time judgement on how it seems best fitting to your schedule if something is not needing more time, then allocate shorter times for other and more time towards pictures for traditional.

We’re doing it the traditional way. One thing that we’re doing to cut down on photos during cocktail hour is to have all posed photos that don’t need both me and FH to be done before the ceremony (ex. photos of just me with my parents, photos of each of us with our respective wedding party sides) so the only photos that need to be done during cocktail hour are the photos that need both of us.

It it also depends on how many posed photos you want. I personally want our photography to have a heavier balance on candid shots so I don’t think we’ll need a ton of time for our cocktail hour shots. If you photographer has the style of taking more posed shots/you want a lot of posed shots then you’ll need more time

From the get go, we knew we were going to do it the traditional way. We feel very strongly that the first moment my FH should see me is when I'm walking down the aisle. We both want that to be the pinacle of surprise and emotion!

The photos argument is a valid one to not feel rushed between events, but we aren't planning on taking too many pictures. We will have about 40 minutes on the beach to snap all the shots we want and I think that will be plenty!

Hard to say, I think for me personally I love the traditional way. To limit time it would be good to do some of those separate photos before. If you are planning to do ones with the bridesmaids and bride, groom and groomsmen, some individual family first look with bride and father of the bride. That sort of thing. Also it helps to have a list of the must have photos before going into it so you don’t miss any important ones or have the photos drag on. Nothing worse than faking a smile because you are exhausted of photos.

Congratulations on your engagement and welcome to the community!

It’s really personal preference I think. You can’t go wrong with whichever way you choose.

We are not fans of the first look trend for a lot of reasons. We have about 4.5 hours in between the end of our ceremony and start of our reception. So we aren’t really rushed for the photo part. We also aren’t rushed with our photographers - we have them for 10 hours I think. So lots of time for photos.

We’re traditional people in general, we love the idea that the first time we see each other will be when I walk down the aisle, our photographs will get to capture that moment.

I think a first look is a great option if you don’t have a lot if time between your ceremony and reception for photos. I also think it’s good if one, or both of you, has nerves or anxiety - sometimes it’s better to see someone that way you’re not nervous when they walk down the aisle.

Its also great if your photographer has limited hours. Maximize your time with them by doing a first look - it makes sense.

Another option, if you’re in between doing the traditional route and a first look is a first touch which is becoming really popular. Basically the photographer will capture you holding hands on different sides of a door where you still can’t see each other. I thought these photos were spectacular it my FH said no he wants to see me and have that experience once I’m down the aisle.

Either way you choose, I don’t think you can go wrong. Do what’s best for you.